Troupe is the son of baseball catcher Quincy Trouppe (who added a second "P" to the family name while playing in Mexico to accommodate the Spanish pronunciation "Trou-pay").
)[2] In his book Miles and Me Troupe recalls the experience: When I left that joint that afternoon, I felt as though I had undergone a secret initiation, a rite of passage, one that would separate me forever from the rest of the students at Beaumont High School, to which I had just transferred.
While in France, he had a chance encounter with the noted French Existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, who recommended that Troupe try his hand at poetry.
When he returned to civilian life, Troupe moved to Los Angeles, California, where he became a regular presence at the Watts Writers Workshop and began working in a more jazz-based style.
[5] His work is associated with Black Arts Movement writers such as Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Wanda Coleman, Haki Madhubuti and Ishmael Reed,[6] who were also friends.
Miles: The Autobiography[9] was published in 1990 and won an American Book Award[10] for the authors, garnering them numerous positive reviews and accolades.
A background check related to the new political appointment revealed that Troupe had, in fact, never possessed a degree from Grambling; he attended for only two semesters in 1957–58 and then dropped out.